The Diablo III Forums have a Message from Mike Morhaime reflecting on Diablo III in the two months since the action/RPG sequel launched. He recaps and explains the game's growing pains after launch, and goes on to discuss its future, saying they are working on a way to make the game playable without playing Diablo tycoon on the auction house, reducing issues related to the game's always-on requirement, and they are "also working on a gameplay system that will provide players who have max-level, high-powered characters new goals to strive for as an alternative to the 'item hunt'." Here's a bit:

You’ve seen some of that work already in patch 1.0.3, and you’ll see additional improvements with patch 1.0.4. On the game balance front, this update will contain changes designed to further deliver on the team’s goal of promoting “build diversity,” with buffs to many rarely used, underpowered class abilities. Another topic we’ve seen actively discussed is the fact that better, more distinct Legendary items are needed. We agree. Patch 1.0.4 will also include new and improved Legendary items that are more interesting, more powerful, and more epic in ways you probably won’t be expecting.

We’re also working on a number of interface updates, including social improvements that will allow players to more easily view their friends’ achievements, more quickly join games, and more efficiently communicate with each other. In addition, we’ll be making updates to the auction house in the future to provide players with better information through tooltips and notices, offer improved search functionality, and more.

Verno wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 10:28:Attempting to get back on topic after Krovven's usual trolling:

Mike says that they are buffing legendary items in ways that players aren't anticipating, I hope hes being sincere. I want silly shit like "on hit summons 2 skeletons" or "10% chance to cast Meteor at target" type stuff. The game has enough bullshit Slightly Increment Numbers modifiers already. It's an instanced action RPG, they don't need to worry about balance other than making sure everyone can kill shit. There's a reason people liked +skill items in Diablo 2 and while buffing your main DPS stat might be an equivalent in Diablo 3, it isn't represented in a way that is enjoyable to players.

Gear also needs to be less universal to builds. Main Stat + all res + vit or whatever pretty much translate to everything. Most people just swap gear for MF or maybe to throw on a single defensive item like a shield. Heck, due to NV people try to avoid swapping at all. Compare this to Diablo 2 where different builds had drastically different gear setups and you start to see the reduced variety and complexity. A smiter was geared nothing like a hammerdin in Diablo 2. Contrast to that to Diablo 3 where my Wizard can swap from a melee-critmass build to Disintegrate ranged without changing anything. Those kinds of decisions really affect the games longevity value more than they realized.

The class skills/runes really need a redo as well, they went too drastic at the end of beta and really should have tested longer. Looking at my Witch Doctor is a chore, he has so many interesting things and pretty much none of them are viable. Even the summons start dropping off in usefulness in Nightmare, let alone Inferno.

As long as they keep the silly stuff actually useful, it's sad when 100% of the 5-6 legendaries I've seen total in 100+ hours are made even more useless than they had to be by having random stats in useless combinations, such as DEX+INT on a barbarian-only weapon (useless anyway due to far too little DPS).. It's currently like "YAY LEGENDARY!!!!! oh.... :((".. No thanks to +10% chance to spawn a menagerie of dancing leprechauns

Completely agree this being an instanced RPG. They really need to stop balancing drops around a global economy/auction house. The chance of finding anything good in this game is already tiny, so that proverbial carrot to keep you playing is completely missing. In my own experience we're talking less than one usable item in 20 hours of A1/A2 inferno farming. With usable mostly meaning sellable.

I really wonder how they spent all that development time. The core gameplay is solid enough but the game feels *rough* in spots. Really braindead simple stuff that shouldn't have been overlooked with any form of playtesting. It seems obvious that Inferno basically got the "Hell x 50" treatment. Moreover you have silly things like succubi homing blood stars debuffing melee class armor by 50% (i.e. die twice as fast to nearby phase beasts) while ranged classes are merely inconvenience with attack debuff.. Then there's all the completely useless skills/runes, the fact that two-handed weapons are seriously gimpy compared to weapon+shield or dual-wielding, and a whole slew of other things.

You forgot to mention the game is boring and uninteresting and just plain sucks... I'll grind forever, but not in a game that is so pathetically childesh and plain dumb. Grind to the boss and the bosses suck, dont help

Verno wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 10:28:Attempting to get back on topic after Krovven's usual trolling:

Mike says that they are buffing legendary items in ways that players aren't anticipating, I hope hes being sincere. I want silly shit like "on hit summons 2 skeletons" or "10% chance to cast Meteor at target" type stuff. The game has enough bullshit Slightly Increment Numbers modifiers already. It's an instanced action RPG, they don't need to worry about balance other than making sure everyone can kill shit. There's a reason people liked +skill items in Diablo 2 and while buffing your main DPS stat might be an equivalent in Diablo 3, it isn't represented in a way that is enjoyable to players.

Gear also needs to be less universal to builds. Main Stat + all res + vit or whatever pretty much translate to everything. Most people just swap gear for MF or maybe to throw on a single defensive item like a shield. Heck, due to NV people try to avoid swapping at all. Compare this to Diablo 2 where different builds had drastically different gear setups and you start to see the reduced variety and complexity. A smiter was geared nothing like a hammerdin in Diablo 2. Contrast to that to Diablo 3 where my Wizard can swap from a melee-critmass build to Disintegrate ranged without changing anything. Those kinds of decisions really affect the games longevity value more than they realized.

The class skills/runes really need a redo as well, they went too drastic at the end of beta and really should have tested longer. Looking at my Witch Doctor is a chore, he has so many interesting things and pretty much none of them are viable. Even the summons start dropping off in usefulness in Nightmare, let alone Inferno.

As long as they keep the silly stuff actually useful, it's sad when 100% of the 5-6 legendaries I've seen total in 100+ hours are made even more useless than they had to be by having random stats in useless combinations, such as DEX+INT on a barbarian-only weapon (useless anyway due to far too little DPS).. It's currently like "YAY LEGENDARY!!!!! oh.... :((".. No thanks to +10% chance to spawn a menagerie of dancing leprechauns

Completely agree this being an instanced RPG. They really need to stop balancing drops around a global economy/auction house. The chance of finding anything good in this game is already tiny, so that proverbial carrot to keep you playing is completely missing. In my own experience we're talking less than one usable item in 20 hours of A1/A2 inferno farming. With usable mostly meaning sellable.

I really wonder how they spent all that development time. The core gameplay is solid enough but the game feels *rough* in spots. Really braindead simple stuff that shouldn't have been overlooked with any form of playtesting. It seems obvious that Inferno basically got the "Hell x 50" treatment. Moreover you have silly things like succubi homing blood stars debuffing melee class armor by 50% (i.e. die twice as fast to nearby phase beasts) while ranged classes are merely inconvenience with attack debuff.. Then there's all the completely useless skills/runes, the fact that two-handed weapons are seriously gimpy compared to weapon+shield or dual-wielding, and a whole slew of other things.

Krovven keeps talking, continuing to embarrass himself further, simply uncapable of knowing when to quit...

You want to see how an actual adult behaves? I'll show you. This little pissing match is over. Done. Continue on with your angry, melodramatic, obsessed ramblings on your own. When a young child is throwing a tantrum in public and making an ass out themselves and won't stop often the best thing is just ignore him or her until they get over it. I'm done with it - completely done paying you the slightest bit of attention to you. When you stop behaving like a lunatic, I'll gladly forget your little episode ever happened. (Until the next one, and I'll follow the same steps).

You have serious issues dude. Get some help. Really.

Don't take it personally, he does this with everyone. He can't get past the idea that people don't like Diablo 3 as much as he does, hes just singling you out. His post history is filled with these which is why his "ignore list" is so large, it's most of the community at this point. It's a pattern, he picks fights over small things, gets extremely rude and unpleasant then declares the community as a whole is a waste (but keeps returning, of course). A few weeks ago he was raging on Blue about a story because he thought it had some negative connotation to Blizzard or something.

Krovven wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 12:19:So yes, I guess not wanting to be associated with whiney self entitled little shits makes me the irrational one that needs mental help.

Being a rather pathetic weirdo who keeps fighting some illusionary battle on behalf of a corporate brand is what makes you need mental help. Many people here bought the game and just don't like it, sorry that totally shatters your sad world view. If it bugs you so much then leave, it's not like you'll be missed.

Krovven keeps talking, continuing to embarrass himself further, simply uncapable of knowing when to quit...

You want to see how an actual adult behaves? I'll show you. This little pissing match is over. Done. Continue on with your angry, melodramatic, obsessed ramblings on your own. When a young child is throwing a tantrum in public and making an ass out themselves and won't stop often the best thing is just ignore him or her until they get over it. I'm done with it - completely done paying you the slightest bit of attention to you. When you stop behaving like a lunatic, I'll gladly forget your little episode ever happened. (Until the next one, and I'll follow the same steps).

Krovven keeps talking, continuing to embarrass himself further, simply uncapable of knowing when to quit...

You want to see how an actual adult behaves? I'll show you. This little pissing match is over. Done. Continue on with your angry, melodramatic, obsessed ramblings on your own. When a young child is throwing a tantrum in public and making an ass out themselves and won't stop often the best thing is just ignore him or her until they get over it. I'm done with it - completely done paying you the slightest bit of attention to you. When you stop behaving like a lunatic, I'll gladly forget your little episode ever happened. (Until the next one, and I'll follow the same steps).

You have serious issues dude. Get some help. Really.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Krovven wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 12:19:As I said to someone last night, I'm no longer surprised that D3 threads are 75% ignored users, and most of those people never bought the game to begin with, yet they are still bitching about the game 2 months after release. So yes, I guess not wanting to be associated with whiney self entitled little shits makes me the irrational one that needs mental help.

Probably because this was supposed to be a big release and a lot of people were looking forward to it for years. The game is a massive disappointment, not just because they seriously screwed up the game, but also because of the how and why of the screw-up. When your game sucks because you got greedy and designed around features to make money rather than creating a game that is fun and enduring like the previous games, you're going to get a lot of shit for it. No idea how you can't seem to wrap your head around that. Everyone has a right to bitch about it, and denying the massive fuckup is just ridiculous.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

Prez wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 02:04:Wow, you are just completely, utterly irrational.

Funny. That's what I've been saying about you. Irrational is going around crying like a child in every thread about a form of entertainment and how it raped your children and ruined your life.

Speaking of irrational, someone can tell nin that if he wasn't so delusional he'd notice that right after I started the Blues News group, I passed it over to Blue. That was 5-7 years ago now? Furthermore, I've since left the Blues group because the amount of people I want to continue relationships with from Blues is a handful and they are already on my friends list. Some people need to grow the fuck up in a big way.

As I said to someone last night, I'm no longer surprised that D3 threads are 75% ignored users, and most of those people never bought the game to begin with, yet they are still bitching about the game 2 months after release. So yes, I guess not wanting to be associated with whiney self entitled little shits makes me the irrational one that needs mental help.

nin wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 10:06:I treat people like they treat others. I've had him on ignore for a long time now, and even before that he came across as condescending, rude, and just a general asshole. Hell, I never joined the Blue's news steam group (even though I'd like to, and I've seen a lot of the regulars use it) since I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

You could always join the Blues group and then just block him. Then no problem

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

avianflu wrote on Jul 19, 2012, 14:48:D3 might serve is a warning sign to other developers wanting to make mandatory-on-line, real-money-auction-house type games. Time will tell.

In what way? It sold 7 million copies.

It's a Blizzard game, they had almost two decades of good will and brand power to work with. It would have sold no matter what. Other companies might not have that same kind of power to force online requirements or get away with putting real money features into the game.

I think a lot of companies are going to tread very lightly here. For one, I think they need a reason. Diablo 3, as designed, needs to be online in the same way an MMO needs to be. It sounds like a flimsy reason (why couldn't most of that be on disc rather than on server? I haven't played so I don't know, but I don't think there's an answer for that question), but it's still a reason. Just a crappy one.

So I think other companies will do this, but it's going to be for big games and games that logically have a reason to be connected to the internet at all times, even for single player. This is why I doubt Fortnite will do this - it'd pretty much tank a game that's a gamble, anyway (I also don't get why that isn't a f2p multiplayer only game, but we know nothing about it so I'm sure my expectations aren't too close to what it actually is.)

The next game to do this will either be a surefire hit or it's going to die.

Mike says that they are buffing legendary items in ways that players aren't anticipating, I hope hes being sincere. I want silly shit like "on hit summons 2 skeletons" or "10% chance to cast Meteor at target" type stuff. The game has enough bullshit Slightly Increment Numbers modifiers already. It's an instanced action RPG, they don't need to worry about balance other than making sure everyone can kill shit. There's a reason people liked +skill items in Diablo 2 and while buffing your main DPS stat might be an equivalent in Diablo 3, it isn't represented in a way that is enjoyable to players.

Gear also needs to be less universal to builds. Main Stat + all res + vit or whatever pretty much translate to everything. Most people just swap gear for MF or maybe to throw on a single defensive item like a shield. Heck, due to NV people try to avoid swapping at all. Compare this to Diablo 2 where different builds had drastically different gear setups and you start to see the reduced variety and complexity. A smiter was geared nothing like a hammerdin in Diablo 2. Contrast to that to Diablo 3 where my Wizard can swap from a melee-critmass build to Disintegrate ranged without changing anything. Those kinds of decisions really affect the games longevity value more than they realized.

The class skills/runes really need a redo as well, they went too drastic at the end of beta and really should have tested longer. Looking at my Witch Doctor is a chore, he has so many interesting things and pretty much none of them are viable. Even the summons start dropping off in usefulness in Nightmare, let alone Inferno.

I'm actually starting to wonder if he has a mental illness of some sort which is why I am feeling pity, I mean, fanboys can go so far before the facts hit them right in the face but Krovven just simply goes on and on and on and on oblivious of reality. Maybe he needs professional help.

I treat people like they treat others. I've had him on ignore for a long time now, and even before that he came across as condescending, rude, and just a general asshole. Hell, I never joined the Blue's news steam group (even though I'd like to, and I've seen a lot of the regulars use it) since I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

I'm actually starting to wonder if he has a mental illness of some sort which is why I am feeling pity, I mean, fanboys can go so far before the facts hit them right in the face but Krovven just simply goes on and on and on and on oblivious of reality. Maybe he needs professional help.

I'm not the grown adult crying in every D3 thread about how butthurt they are over "entertainment".

Nor do I go around hoping that others experiences are intentionally ruined by hackers.

You seemed like a good guy Prez. Turns out you are just a sad individual like the others around here that obsess over games and the companies that make them, spewing hatred over what you feel they owe you.

Wow, you are just completely, utterly irrational. You literally take any insult against Blizzard and Diablo 3 as a personal insult and interpret that as a call to arms to ATTACK!!! I find myself more and more being embarrassed for you by how you literally lose all sense of perspective and reason in Diablo/Blizzard threads. I find it sad but at the same time amusingly ironic that you question my "adulthood" while you are busy lashing out like a spoiled child at others because they don't like things you clearly have a creepy, unhealthy obsession with. You are worse than a fanboy; you're a mindless sycophant. I truly feel sorry for you. Feel free to unfriend me, put me on ignore, build voodoo dolls in my likeness, whatever your sad little existence feels is required in punishment for my egregious offenses against Blizzard by having the GALL to speak badly about them and their shitty game. But if you think I'm going to stop speaking my mind because it upsets you, you can just fuck off. Ain't gonna happen, no matter how much it hurts your wittle feewings.

You know, I'm starting to feel real pity for Krovven. When one lives a life like Krovven does... it is deserving of pity since he probably doesn't know how to act differently.

Krovven wrote on Jul 20, 2012, 01:49:I'm not the grown adult crying in every D3 thread about how butthurt they are over "entertainment".

Nor do I go around hoping that others experiences are intentionally ruined by hackers.

You seemed like a good guy Prez. Turns out you are just a sad individual like the others around here that obsess over games and the companies that make them, spewing hatred over what you feel they owe you.

Man you need a reality check, you have just gone off the troll deep end lately. He's a bad person because he doesn't like a Blizzard game? You seem to be the one taking entertainment too seriously here, getting completely irrational and literally getting angry at people for not sharing your opinions.

I don't know how you manage to be totally in denial about this game either. The hype and honeymoon periods are over, people are finally discovering many of the problems that powergamers noted in the first few weeks. They aren't happy and it's not because they're entitled. If you don't like it then tough shit, deal with it.